Welcome to the Inglenook at Cold Spring School Library...a cozy place by the fire to discuss children's literature and the wonder of reading and learning.

Friday, January 16, 2009

News From The Library--January 16, 2009

Happy Bookworms!

Book Clubs Have Started in the Library!

This week our ever popular Library Book Clubs have started and already we have some enthusiastic members! Grades 1-4 have special clubs and grades 5 and 6 will have the chance to do blog reviews this year.

The most important rule for all the clubs is to have fun reading! Books are chosen at a student’s independent reading level so that reading for the Book Clubs is a pleasurable and relaxing experience. This also builds confidence and fluency as the children have the opportunity to practice the reading skills they have learned in the classroom.

Each grade level has a club and the “rules for membership” vary. Personalized bookmarks are given to members after they have read and reported on their first book. Following is a brief summary of the clubs. If you have any questions, please feel free to stop by the Library or email me. We’re off to a great start!

Grades 1 and 2 are the Bookworm Club. Members read books from our Easy and Beginning Reader section. After taking the book home, or keeping it in their desk at school, and reading the entire book, members make an appointment with Mrs. Pedersen to read their favorite page either before school, at any recess, after school, or during their library time. This year I’ll record their reading in a podcast format if they’d like so we can track their fluency improvement. Each time a book is finished it is entered on their “official” log and a sticker is awarded. After each 6 books are read, members can choose a special prize.

Grade 3 is the Red Dot Book Club, so named for the red dots on the spines of many books in our collection that are especially chosen for readers who are ready to read chapter books. After reading a “red dot book,” members write a book report or a do a multimedia project using their laptop and submit it to Mrs. Pedersen. After completing a book report or a project, members can choose a special prize.

Grade 4 is the Mystery Book Club and members choose from the wide array of mysteries in our Library. Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books are among the all time favorites for this club. To report on their books, members have several options. One is to write a book report or do a multimedia project on their laptop and turn it in to Mrs. Pedersen. One option (and one we are very excited about!) is to record a video report to be posted on our blog, Voices From the Inglenook. Students will use our stuffed animal dolphin as their avatar—named Dectective McDolphin for the club—or they can dress in one of our two Detective McDolphin costumes and perform their report. After completing a project, members can choose a special prize.

Grades 5 and 6 has an individualized book club in which students can read a particular genre or author and do a video review for our blog. Also, many of our 5th and 6th graders are participating in Battle of the Books.

Book Clubs are one of my favorite parts of being a librarian at Cold Spring! It’s such a joy to see students excited about reading.

Fifth and Sixth Grade--This week we began our unit on Website Evaluation entitled "When in Doubt, Doubt!" After viewing a Keynote, we had a discussion about what to look for in a good website including its authority, currency, purpose, and objectivity. In the next few weeks student will have a change to evalute actual website.

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At the moment that we persuade a child, any child, to cross that threshold,
that magic threshold into a library, we change their lives forever, for the
better. ~~Barack Obama (from a speech to the American Library Association June 25, 2005)

About Me

I graduated from UCLA in 1970 with a degree in Art History and then earned my California Teaching Credential from UCLA in 1972. After teaching 4th grade in the inner city for 2 years I moved to Santa Barbara and founded the Santa Barbara Center for Educational Therapy. In 1989, with a desire to return to the public schools, I was fortunate to be hired as a school librarian and I'm starting my 20th year at Cold Spring School.
I have always been a bookworm and love teaching so this is the perfect job for me!